MIGUEL RIO BRANCO

What the Gallery Says: “Rio Branco is renowned for his dramatic use of color and the intimacy and complexity of his subject matter: direct, often brutal photographs of marginalized communities in Brazil. His photo-essay, Out of Nowhere, delves inside the Santa Rosa Boxing Academy in Rio de Janeiro, where former prostitutes, street youths, and people of all backgrounds would flock to train. The photographs, which were originally captured in the early 1990s and were first exhibited under the title Out of Nowhere at the 1994 Havana Bienal, depict the boxers at the academy while focusing on the pervading transcendental atmosphere of the space rather than the individual subjects.”

Why It’s Worth a Look: A vet of Magnum Photos, Rio Branco is a master of using color photography in a way that balances drama and humanity.